Seòmar agus comataidhean

Good morning, convener and committee members. This is the first opportunity that I have had to welcome Oliver Mundell and Carol Mochan to the committee. As a previous member of the committee, I know very well the important part that it plays in scrutinising all legislation.

We have had a close working relationship since I became the Minister for Parliamentary Business, and I hope that that continues to be the case. When we met in June, I reflected on the fact that the first year of this parliamentary session was very challenging, and the challenges have continued with the cost of living crisis and the situation in Ukraine. As I did in June, I record my thanks to the committee, its officials and the Parliament for the constructive way in which they have worked with the Government over an extremely busy and challenging time.

The remainder of year 2—and, indeed, year 3—will be no less challenging, particularly given the measures that are contained in the United Kingdom Government’s Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill.

We continue to bring a significant amount of legislation to the Parliament. Since September, we have considered six bills, 96 Scottish statutory instruments, eight legislative consent memorandums and 11 UK statutory instruments.

The committee will note that there has been a reduction in the number of SSIs that have been laid by the Government. There is no specific reason for that, but I am delighted to note that, in this quarter, no instruments have been reported on serious grounds. As the committee knows, I take the quality of the instruments that we lay very seriously, and it is important that there are as few errors as possible.

Government and Parliament officials have been working on a protocol for expedited affirmative instruments following the concerns that arose from the use of the made affirmative procedure during the pandemic and from the committee’s inquiry. That work is on-going and is near completion.

When we met in June, I committed to undertake a strategic review of the data and information that the Government currently provides to Parliament. It is worth reminding ourselves of what the Government currently provides; namely, a forward look, every week, of SSIs to be laid in the following two weeks, weekly updates on UK SIs, a fortnightly update on LCMs and a monthly update on bills. That is a substantial amount of data, and it is complemented by regular meetings between officials, and indeed by the meetings that I offer to committee conveners.

My officials have been considering carefully the data and information that we provide to the Parliament and will engage shortly with the committee clerks to seek their input. As ever, it is vital that we work together to ensure that we are providing information and data that is helpful and of value not only to this committee but to the Parliament as a whole.

I look forward to hearing from the committee.

As a rule, we obviously do not want to be having problems with delayed implementation of legislation or 28-day breaches. However, it can be challenging out there for a number of reasons, and there may be situations where we have those problems. All that I can do is assure the committee that I, as the minister, ensure that we try to keep everything within the proper way of doing business. That does not always happen—we are only human and there can be difficulties.

There are also difficulties with regard to information that we might receive from other legislative bodies such as Westminster and from the UK Government, whereby we get to see detail only at the very last minute.

We try to get everything to you in a timeous manner, but it can prove quite challenging.

I will bring in Susan Herbert to see whether she has something to add.

We will come back to the committee about those instruments. On the whole, generally speaking, we try to get these things worked out within the correct time.

Yes, they did. We worked particularly closely with Welsh colleagues on other things, but yes, they also had those experiences in relation to the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, and things have been difficult.

I am happy to make a commitment that we look at it and engage with the committee to see where we are with everything.

Tom Arthur is the minister who will know about the detail of the Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Bill. On the whole, we generally try to engage with as many stakeholders as possible on any bill. The last thing that the Government needs is a stakeholder coming to us further down the line when we are drafting legislation and telling us that the proposed legislation will make things really difficult for them or that something will not work the way in which we want it to work. It is only right that a Government should engage with all the stakeholders and make sure that it gets the information that it needs. If there is an issue with that, I am happy to talk to Mr Arthur about that detail and take it from there.

The Government always intends to ensure that because, from a practical point of view, it is better for us to know where we stand.

We are undertaking a review of information sharing. We hoped to have progressed it more than we have so far, but we are aiming to engage shortly with parliamentary officials with a view to establishing a short-life working group to seek their input on it. We are at the stage where we will be engaging with parliamentary officials to bring that to the next stage.

We probably hoped to be a lot further on than we are but, unfortunately, for various reasons, we are just a wee bit behind where we should have been.

I can see how certain members of the committee would look at a framework bill and think that, but the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill is about co-design. It is a new way of thinking about how we design policy, a process and a system. The bill gives us the flexibility that the Government needs to do that so that we can get engagement with stakeholders and those who use the systems and processes that you and the convener have been talking about with the Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Bill, and so that we can get their expertise at that level.

I can understand, from the point of view of a member of this committee, how some would cynically think that it is a power grab by the Government to do what it wants when it wants, but that is not what this is about. It is never about that anyway, but this is about ensuring that, on the national care service, all stakeholders have had all kinds of engagement and helped us to co-design the service.

I have not had a chance to look at the committee’s report on the bill, but I am sure that the minister, Kevin Stewart, will have a look at it and that he will probably be in touch. He has already spoken to this committee and emphasised again how important it is that he works with the committee. He wants to work with you to ensure that the bill and the national care service are all that they can possibly be.

I do not believe so, having been a member of this committee. I do not see that anything disappears, Mr Mundell. Everything gets looked at and debated. I really believe that this is the best way forward for this specific process. However, I will look at your committee’s report. As I said, I have not had a chance to do that yet. I believe that it was published only on Thursday or Friday last week, so I have not yet had a chance to read it, but I will look at it and take it from there.